1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding door apparatus with a window where an opening/closing member such as a window glass is disposed so as to allow opening or closing of the window.
2) Description of the Related Art
In a sliding door apparatus having a window where an opening/closing member such as a window glass is disposed so as to allow opening/closing of the window, when the sliding door is slid in an opening direction with the window open, the opened area of the window is gradually narrowed because it is overlapped with a body of a vehicle. Therefore, in case someone sticks his or her head or hand out of the window when the window is open, it is possibly caught in the window while the slide door is opened.
One of the conventional sliding door apparatuses of this kind solves the above problem by adopting a mechanism to stop the sliding door before it reaches a full-open position if opening operation of the sliding door is made when opening of the window exceeds a certain level, for example, when the window is opened more than 150 millimeters, (See, for example Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication JP-A 2000-240352).
However, even when the opening of the window is not more than a predetermined level (hereinafter, “a threshold”), it is possible to stick a hand or a long narrow object out of the window, so that there is still a possible danger that the hand or the object is caught between the window and the body of the vehicle.
Of course, it is possible to prevent the foreign object from being caught more securely by setting the threshold smaller. However, when the threshold is set smaller, it is impossible to fully open the sliding door unless the window opening is smaller than the threshold or even closed, which significantly causes an inconvenience when handling the sliding door apparatus. In particular, when the user does not notice that the window is slightly open, or does not recognize the closing function itself, it is difficult to figure out the reason why the full open of the sliding door is disabled.